The growth of technological and scientific knowledge in the past two centuries has been the overriding dynamic element in the economic and social history of the world. Its result is now often called the knowledge economy. But what are the historical origins of this revolution and what have been its mechanisms? In The Gifts of Athena , Joel Mokyr constructs an original framework to analyze the concept of "useful" knowledge. He argues that the growth explosion in the modern West in the past two centuries was driven not just by the appearance of new technological ideas but also by the improved access to these ideas in society at large--as made possible by social networks comprising universities, publishers, professional sciences, and kindred institutions. Through a wealth of historical evidence set in clear and lively prose, he shows that changes in the intellectual and social environment and the institutional background in which knowledge was generated and disseminated brought about the Industrial Revolution, followed by sustained economic growth and continuing technological change. Mokyr draws a link between intellectual forces such as the European enlightenment and subsequent economic changes of the nineteenth century, and follows their development into the twentieth century. He further explores some of the key implications of the knowledge revolution. Among these is the rise and fall of the "factory system" as an organizing principle of modern economic organization. He analyzes the impact of this revolution on information technology and communications as well as on the public's state of health and the structure of households. By examining the social and political roots of resistance to new knowledge, Mokyr also links growth in knowledge to political economy and connects the economic history of technology to the New Institutional Economics. The Gifts of Athena provides crucial insights into a matter of fundamental concern to a range of disciplines including economics, economic history, political economy, the history of technology, and the history of science.

This book explores the rapidly developing area of research called hedonics or "happiness studies." Researchers from fields such as philosophy, law, economics, and psychology explore the bases of happiness and what factors can increase or decrease it. The results have implications for both law and public policy.

“Brilliant . . . The dean of American comic writers showcases his varied talents mocking the public and private lives of politicians, average citizens and himself.”— The Star-Ledger Calvin Trillin has committed blatant acts of funniness all over the place—in The New Yorker, in one-man off-Broadway shows, in his “deadline poetry” for The Nation, in comic novels, and in what USA Today called “simply the funniest regular column in journalism.” Now Trillin selects the best of his funny stuff and organizes it into topics like high finance (“My long-term investment strategy has been criticized as being entirely too dependent on Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes”) and the literary life (“The average shelf life of a book is somewhere between milk and yogurt”). He addresses the horrors of witnessing a voodoo economics ceremony and the mystery of how his mother managed for thirty years to feed her family nothing but leftovers (“We have a team of anthropologists in there now looking for the original meal”). He even skewers deserving political figures in poetry. In this, the definitive collection of his humor, Calvin Trillin is prescient, insightful, and invariably hilarious. “A literary treasure . . . There is only one Calvin Trillin, and if he didn’t exist we would have to invent him.”— The Washington Times “Funny is to Trillin what drinking is to Uncle Jed in Annie Get Your Gun —it’s what he does ‘natur’lly.’ He’s also a lot more than funny. Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin is the twenty-eighth book he’s published over not far short of a half-century, and their range of subjects is remarkable.”—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post “Trillin made his reputation over four decades as the author of ‘U.S. Journal’ in the New Yorker [but he] is incapable of resisting the temptation of comedy. The jokes kept on welling up and Mr. Trillin made a parallel reputation as a writer of funny stuff.”— The Economist “Wry, whip-smart, understated, and entertaining.”— The Miami Herald

Wassily Leontief (1905–1999) was the founding father of input-output economics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1973. This book offers a collection of papers in memory of Leontief by his students and close colleagues. The first part, 'Reflections on Input-Output Economics', focuses upon Leontief as a person and scholar as well as his personal contributions to economics. It includes contributions by Nobel Laureate Paul A. Samuelson who shares his memories of a young Professor Leontief at Harvard and ends with the last joint interview with Wassily and his wife, to date previously unpublished. The second part, 'Perspectives of Input-Output Economics', includes theoretical and empirical research inspired by Leontief's work and offers a wide-ranging sample of the state of interindustry economics, a field Leontief founded. This is a strong collection likely to appeal to a wide range of professionals in universities, government, industry and international organizations.

As the global economic crisis continues to cause damage, some policy makers have called for a more Keynesian approach to current economic problems. In this book, the economists Peter Temin and David Vines provide an accessible introduction to Keynesian ideas that connects Keynes's insights to today's global economy and offers readers a way to understand current policy debates. John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) created the branch of economics now known as macroeconomics. He played a major role in the reconstruction of Europe and the world economy after the Second World War. Keynesian economics came to be identified with efforts to mitigate the Great Depression and with postwar economic policies that helped power a golden age of economic growth. Temin and Vines argue that Keynes also provided a way to understand the interactions among nations, and therein lies his relevance for today's global crisis. Temin and Vines survey economic thinking before Keynes and explain how difficult it was for Keynes to escape from conventional wisdom. They set out the Keynesian analysis of a closed economy and expand the analysis to the international economy, using a few simple graphs to present Keynes's formal analyses in an accessible way. They discuss problems of today's world economy, showcasing the usefulness of a simple Keynesian approach to current economic policy choices. Keynesian ideas, they argue, can lay the basis for a return to economic growth.

The author "shows how a society's wealth is determined not by the supply of physical resources, which are supposedly limited, but by human ingenuity, which constantly redefines what counts as a resource in the first place."

Over the past decade, Sanford Grossman's contributions to the economics ofinformation have significantly altered the way economists think about rational expectations. Herehis articles are collected in one place, providing a uniform framework for understanding how pricesconvey information in securities markets.Grossman elaborates a new model of economic equilibriumthat casts a dual role for prices both as constraints that affect the immediate costs or benefits ofacts and as conveyers of information about the probable future costs and benefits of those acts. Hepoints to the Wall Street panic of October 1987 as an example of the informational role of priceswhere volatility actually represented sophisticated trading strategies by relatively uninformedindividuals.In the first two chapters, Grossman interprets the ideas presented in the articles inlight of recent developments in financial markets, looks at selected contributions to the new andstill expanding literature on the informational role of prices, and introduces the rationalexpectations model of demand price equilibrium.Six chapters then take up the informational role ofprices in competitive stock markets, and future markets (where Grossman's "noisy rationalexpectations" model provides rewards for discovering new information). They look at theimpossibility of informationally efficient markets, the implications of program trading and dynamichedging strategies for stock and futures price volatility, and takeover bids. The last two chaptersconcentrate on the informational role of contracts -- warranties and private disclosure aboutproduct quality, and the implication of unemployment with observable aggregate shocks. Economistscollaborating with Grossman on several chapters include J. E. Stiglitz, Oliver Hart, and EricMaskin.Sanford Grossman is Professor of Finance at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.The Informational Role of Prices is included in the Wicksell Lectures series.

In For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Rothbard proposes a once-and-for-all escape from the two major political parties, the ideologies they embrace, and their central plans for using state power against people. Libertarianism is Rothbard's radical alternative that says state power is unworkable and immoral and ought to be curbed and finally overthrown.To make his case, Rothbard deploys his entire system of thought: natural law, natural rights, Austrian economics, American history, the theory of the state, and more.It is relentless, scientific, analytical, and morally energetic — a book that makes an overwhelming case. Indeed, it gave an entire movement its intellectual consciousness and earned Rothbard the titles "Mr. Libertarian" and "The State's Greatest Living Enemy."Society without the nation-state? Rothbard shows that this is the way for peace, prosperity, security, and freedom for all. In the entire history of libertarian ideas, no book has more successfully combined ideological rigor, theoretical exposition, political rhetoric, historical illustration, and strategic acumen. Rothbard poured a lifetime of research and all his intellectual energy into this project and he succeeded in writing a classic.The book is the result of the only contract Rothbard ever received from a mainstream commercial publisher. He was asked to sum up the whole of the libertarian creed. Looking at the original manuscript, which was nearly complete after its first draft, it seems that it was a nearly effortless joy for him to write. It is seamless, unrelenting, and full of life.He cut no corners and pulled no punches. It appeared in 1973 and created a whole movement that set out to crush the political monopoly.In subject after subject, this book is informative, bracing, and challenging. It also features the characteristically clear writing style for which Rothbard is famous, which stemmed from his organized thinking and passionate drive to teach and change the world.The book begins with American history to show that the revolution of 1776 was the most libertarian of any in history. The pastors, pamphleteers, and statesmen who led it held that the state has no rights that the people themselves do not possess. They demanded full liberty, not some truncated version that existed in the old world. In this discussion, the reader comes to appreciate the founders of the United States of America as never before.Rothbard then sets out to rekindle that fire, first through a discussion of the philosophy and ethics of freedom. The central axiom: no man or group of men may aggress against the person and property of anyone else. He justifies the axiom on the basis of natural rights. It is an axiom that has few opponents, until Rothbard spells out its implications: taxation is theft, conscription is slavery, and war is mass murder, among many other points.Bracing indeed! But the state is the primary violator of this simple axiom. It presumes the right to rob and kill while purporting to protect us from robbing and killing. Thus follows a full theory of the state, how it gains and maintains controls over the population (but not through a "social contract"!), the various failed methods for keeping it in check (not even constitutions work!), its operations and tendencies to work its evil (it never has enough power), and how intellectuals become co-opted by the forces of state power.The book is still regarded as "dangerous" precisely because, once the exposure to Rothbardianism takes place, no other book on politics, economics, history, or sociology can be read the same way again.

This collection of essays presents a sampling of the significant contributions to twentieth-century economic thought and practice by Nobel Prize-winner Milton Friedman. Friedman is widely regarded as the leader of the Chicago school of economics, which stresses the importance of the quantity of money as an instrument of governmental policy and as a major determinant of business cycles and inflation. Making an early impact on the economics profession was his analysis of economics as an empirical science, and in particular, his conclusion that the only relevant test of the acceptability of economic hypotheses is the conformity of the predictions they generate with observation. His permanent income theory of consumption, his restatement of the quantity theory of money, and his hypothesis of natural rate of unemployment have by now become part of received economic doctrine. Outside the economic profession, Friedman is best known for his outspoken statements on public policy, particularly his consistent belief that a free-enterprise system with minimum governmental intervention in the economic process will best preserve and extend both human freedom and economic prosperity. A number of the essays reprinted here are eloquent expressions of his commitment to everyone's freedom to choose.

Managing Managed Care is the first comprehensive exploration of the many issues and challenges faced by both providers and patients who work under the auspices of managed care insurers. The distinctive conditions of managed care treatment are scrutinized in detail and their effects and optimal management are carefully presented. The book makes extensive use of the author's unique, in-depth understanding of the human mind and pays attention to both the consciously mediated effects of the conditions of managed care treatment and to the especially powerful, largely unappreciated effects that are mediated unconsciously. The result is a well grounded, extensive, practical guide to dealing effectively with the inevitable intrusions into the therapeutic relationship and with other common issues that are characteristic of managed care therapy. The recommendations proposed by the author can turn a failing treatment experience into one that brings symptom relief to the patient and satisfaction to the therapist. While the author is critical of many practices endorsed by managed care insurers and in use by their providers, he takes pains to propose basic improvements in these areas. In addition, the positive features of this treatment modality are given full consideration, including ways to enhance their favorable effects. The book uniquely provides critical insights for therapists and psychiatrists of all backgrounds and all levels of clinical experience in ways that will greatly enhance their work with managed care patients.

Co-publication with Yale University Press (USA). Discussion of the biological diversity of the earth. Demonstrates how the natural systems that surround us play an essential role in protecting our basic life-support systems. Describes the millions of species providing ecosystem services and explains how biological diversity opens the way for new medicines, construction materials and designs, and manufactured goods. Urges us to protect the biological wealth of the earth from destructive human activity. Includes reccommended reading and index. Beattie is director of the Commonwealth Key Centre for Biodiversity and Bioresources at Macquarie University. Turnbull is a research associate at Macquarie. Erlich is Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University.

The Silent Takeover explains how corporations in the age of globalization are changing our lives, our society, and our future - and are threatening the very basis of our democracy.

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The fight for a "living wage" has a long and revealing history as documented here by Lawrence B. Glickman. The labor movement's response to wages shows how American workers negotiated the transition from artisan to consumer, opening up new political possibilities for organized workers and creating contradictions that continue to haunt the labor movement today. Nineteenth-century workers hoped to become self-employed artisans, rather than permanent "wage slaves." After the Civil War, however, unions redefined working-class identity in consumerist terms, and demanded a wage that would reward workers commensurate with their needs as consumers. This consumerist turn in labor ideology also led workers to struggle for shorter hours and union labels. First articulated in the 1870s, the demand for a living wage was voiced increasingly by labor leaders and reformers at the turn of the century. Glickman explores the racial, ethnic, and gender implications, as white male workers defined themselves in contrast to African Americans, women, Asians, and recent European immigrants. He shows how a historical perspective on the concept of a living wage can inform our understanding of current controversies.

At a recent meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, it was reported that a ghost was haunting the deliberations of the assembled global elite - that of the renowned social scientist and economic historian, Karl Polanyi. In his classic work, The Great Transformation, Polanyi documented the impact of the rise of market society on western civilization and captured better than anyone else the destructive effects of the economic, political and social crisis of the 1930s. Today, in the throes of another Great Recession, Polanyi's work has gained a new significance. To understand the profound challenges faced by our democracies today, we need to revisit history and revisit his work. In this new collection of unpublished texts - lectures, draft essays and reports written between 1919 and 1958 - Polanyi examines the collapse of the liberal economic order and the demise of democracies in the inter-war years. He takes up again the fundamental question that preoccupied him throughout his work - the place of the economy in society - and aims to show how we might return to an economy anchored in society and its cultural, religious and political institutions. For anyone concerned about the danger to democracy and social life posed by the unleashing of capital from regulatory control and the dominance of the neoliberal ideologies of market fundamentalism, this important new volume by one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century is a must-read.--

The socialist world of Eastern Europe is undergoing its second revolution of the 20th century, moving away from a centralized government to one which is more democratic. One of the central questions of this transition is how economic mechanisms may be used to help effect the change. Focusing on the example of Hungary, this text examines the problems faced today by all Eastern European economies, in the light of the rapidly changing political situation. The author criticizes the current practice of state ownership, calling instead for the steady liberalization of the private sector. He proposes a "surgical operation for stabilization" that would put an end to inflation, balance budgets and open the way for more realistic market prices. The text also examines the political necessities for a successful economic transition. It outlines welfare policies necessary for the human execution of economic change and highlights the connections between political democracy and economic stabilization.

Articles and essays by the late Nobel Prize-winning economist on the life-cycle hypothesis, unemployment and monetary policy in the European Union, and other topics. This volume of papers, articles, and essays by the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Franco Modigliani contains writings published during the last decade of his life as well as three seminal earlier papers on the life-cycle hypothesis. As in the previous Collected Papers, the writings are organized by topic; within each topic, the order is chronological. Part I treats the life-cycle hypothesis. Beginning with his important essay from 1954 (written with Richard Brumberg), which laid down the foundation of the life-cycle model, and ending with the last paper Modigliani completed before his death in September 2003, this section presents his research on this topic as a coherent whole. Part II deals with unemployment and monetary policy in the European Union during the last decade of the twentieth century and includes a manifesto on EU unemployment written with six other economists. Part III contains essays on a variety of topics, among them inflation, financial risk, legal institutions, and unemployment. This section includes "The Keynesian Gospel According to Modigliani," which revisits the topic of the general theory of employment, interest, and money and its implications for mass unemployment sixty years after his first ground-breaking paper on the topic. Many of the articles in volume 6 are the product of collaboration; coauthors include Richard Brumberg, Albert Ando, Shi Larry Cao, Jean Paul Fitoussi, Tullio Jappelli, Beniamino Moro, Denis Snower, Robert Solow, Alfred Steinherr, Paolo Sylos Labinia, and Modigliani's granddaughter Leah Modigliani. The volume concludes with an interview of Modigliani by William A. Barnett and Robert Solow from 2000.